Bishop Mulakkal arrested in Kerala nun rape case

The interrogation of bishop Franco Mulakkal, who has been accused by a Kerala nun of raping her, got under way for the third day at the hi-tech interrogation cell in the Crime Branch (CB) office at Tripunithura in Kochi on Friday. The interview lasted till the evening and will continue for a second day on September 20. "A decision will be definitely taken today or tomorrow after the interrogation", Behera told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.

The nun wrote to Apostolic Nuncio, the representative of the Pope in India, demanding justice in the matter, following which the Vatican formed a one-member panel to probe the rape allegations against the priest.

Possibly realising that his options were narrowing down, the bishop formally requested the Vatican to relieve him of the responsibilities. "If he is able to do so fine, otherwise we would take the necessary action", said IG-Kochi range Vijay Sakhare.

On Wednesday, police questioned him for 7 hours. The government is with the nuns staging the protest. The statement said that the nuns have been influenced by some people to take such a step.

Kerala nun rape case: As per reports, prime accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal was arrested by the Kerala Police on Friday afternoon. A plea of anticipatory bail moved by the bishop is set to come up for hearing before the High Court next week and that is also likely to be a factor to be considered by the police before taking any decision on his arrest. "It's been 74 days since she gave a complaint, but other than the police questioning the victim, we don't see any other progress". However, their move did attract some strong criticism as The Missionaries of Jesus congregation, on September 10 condemned the protest by the five nuns. "We can not crucify an innocent soul based on such allegations", reported News18. The statement has also said that the allegations against the bishop are completely baseless.

What does the police have to say?

"For this, three teams will examine them in detail and complete the verifications overnight", he said. "The charge against the bishop is very serious - it's rape".

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